The age estimation of living or dead individuals is an important part of forensic sciences because it can be used in various situations, including mass disasters, or for civil or criminal reasons, such as adoption, asylum, civil rights or criminal responsibility. Teeth play a major role in this context because they are more resistant than bones in extreme environmental conditions and their development is hardly affected by exogenous or endogenous factors. Because the third molars (3rdM) are still in development from the age of 14, they are useful for determining whether an individual has reached the legal age of 18 years. The techniques developed at present to estimate the age of living people mostly rely on radiographic images of teeth, because it is a non-invasive method and has potential to get samples database of clinical radiological for population studies. This study aims to verify the method of Cameriere et al. (2008) (CM) in Brazil to discriminate whether an individual is under or over 18 years from the maturity index of the 3rdM (I3m), as well as comparing the sensitivity (SE) and the specificity (SP) of this method with the G and H stages of the Demirjian et al. (1973) method (DM) modified by Mincer et al. (1993). The analysis of 444 panoramic radiographs resulted in a SE of 78.3%, a SP of 85.1% and a correct classification (CC) of 87%, for a cutoff value of I3m <= 0.08 as in original study. Significant differences in sexual dimorphism in the early mineralization of males were found only for the average age belonging to the bands I3m >= 0.08, except for the range [0.7, 0.9). For the MD were found, respectively, for the G and H stages - SE: 80.54% / 52.94%, SP: 85.27% / 95.54% and CC: 86.8% / 94.2%. The method is suitable for estimating adulthood for forensic purposes in Brazil, although it must be applied carefully and judiciously. We recommend a combination of several methods that are available to increase accuracy as well as the establishment of different parameters that are likely to determine whether a person is more or less than 18 years of age, depending on the different legal requirements, whether civil or criminal. For Brazilians, MC an MD achieve its best performance with I3m <= 0.13 or G stage, respectively, recommended parameters to consider the legal age for civil purposes. For criminal purposes, it is recommended I3m <= 0.05 (CM) or H stage (DM).

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